Both amateur and professional photographers have long sought cameras that enable them to take photographs in a variety of formats that are appropriate for a particular photograph being taken. Professional photographers often carry two or more cameras that are equipped with special lenses for separately taking telephoto and wide angle photographs, for example. Moreover, with the advent of new methods for viewing photographs, such as Photo CD, which enables photographs to be transferred to compact disk read only memory and viewed on television sets or video monitors, even more formats are needed. Still further in the future, as high definition television (HDTV), becomes more common a still further format may be required.
A standard 35 mm exposure is about 24 mm high and 36 mm wide, and hence has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1. HDTV, however, displays images with an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 while recently introduced panoramic prints having an aspect ratio of 2.75:1 or more have also become popular. Therefore, there is a need for a camera that can expose film in all of these formats.
In commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,678,299 and RE 32,797, a camera is described that enables pseudo telephoto and pseudo panoramic prints to be produced from a camera having a zoom objective lens that is adjustable to vary its angular field of view within a field range having wide angle limit, i.e. 28 mm. and a moderate telephoto limit, i.e. 80 mm. The pseudo telephoto and pseudo panoramic formats exceed these built-in limits. The lens is combined with a masking unit in the viewfinder to provide various masking configurations in the finder field to frame a selected portion of a subject to be photographed. The format of the respective masking configurations of the masking unit correspond to the pseudo telephoto and pseudo panoramic format settings of the camera. When the masking unit is activated in accordance with the respective pseudo telephoto and pseudo panoramic settings, the masking unit is rendered opaque to partially mask the finder field to various degrees. Thus, the particular pseudo telephoto or pseudo panoramic format associated with the selected setting of the camera may be viewed in the non-masked portion of the view-finder field.
In another arrangement, and in place of the masking unit, a finder lens in the viewfinder is provided which is adjustable to change its angular field of view to respective telephoto fields that define the pseudo telephoto formats. As a result, a selected pseudo telephoto format can be viewed in the full field of the viewfinder, rather than in a non-masked portion of the finder field. This enables the viewfinder to show a full natural size image of the subject to be photographed, allowing the view through the viewfinder to be on the same scale as the view made with the unaided eye.
Several methods for changing the format of an exposure by masking the exposure plane of the camera with an adjustable feature are also known in the art. The format varying mechanism typically comprises a rectangularly-shaped aperture frame for defining a standard format image area on a standard format film, and a masking means for partly covering the rectangularly-shaped aperture frame so as to define a panoramic format image area on the standard format film which is more elongated in size than the standard format image area. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,790 discloses a variable format camera having a retractable lens which further provides a mechanism for setting the format between .a standard format and a panoramic format. The panoramic format is achieved by manually causing opposing opaque blades or shields to cover the upper and lower portions of the film plane. The resulting rectangular opening is thus set with the selected aspect ratio corresponding to a panoramic format.
It is desirable to control the exposure of the photographic element in accordance with the amount of light reaching the unmasked portion of the photographic element. Thus, the portion of the film frame used to produce the pseudo print can be more accurately exposed. RE 32,797 discloses an exposure control system incorporating a photocell in which the amount of light reaching the photocell is controlled in accordance with the position of the format setting means; for example, a manually set zoom lens. Thus, the portion of the film frame covered by the selected pseudo field of view is exposed in proportion to the amount of light available to the area with the selected format.
Because pseudo format exposures are physically identical to normal exposures; that is, the exposure is made on the same film, such as 35 mm film, it is necessary to identify both that pseudo format exposures are present on the film cartridge so that the cartridge receives special handling, and more particularly to identify the format of the individual exposures so that they can be printed in the selected format.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,304 discloses a camera adapted to receive a special film cartridge for taking exposures for use in producing pseudo telephoto and/or pseudo panoramic prints. The special cartridge is distinguishable physically from a conventional cartridge, preferably by an absence of the spool extension which projects from one end of the conventional cartridge. This enables the special cartridge to be identified for routing at the photo finisher to corresponding equipment for producing pseudo telephoto and pseudo panoramic prints. With the special cartridge, there cannot be any failure by the photo finisher to identify the cartridge as one containing film on which exposures have been made for use in producing pseudo format prints.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,300 discloses a film cartridge having a unique indicator arranged within a discrete dedicated area on an exterior surface of the cartridge. The indicator may be physically altered by a corresponding member in the pseudo format camera to provide a visible indication that the cartridge was used in the pseudo format camera. Preferably, the indicator means is a light reflecting material which is disfigured by a striker mounted on the back door of the pseudo format camera. The disfigured material will scatter reflected light thereby providing an automatically determinable indication to the photo finisher that the cartridge was used in a pseudo format camera.
In both of the inventions just discussed, the pseudo format camera is used with a special cartridge; that is, a film cartridge which is different from a conventional cartridge. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,299, apparatus is described for identifying conventional cartridges used in a particular type camera, such as a pseudo format camera. A back door of the camera is supported for closing movement to cover a film cartridge received in a loading chamber, and for opening movement to permit the received cartridge to be removed in axial direction from the back chamber. An encoding means is mounted on the back door and has a finite range of influence within which range the received cartridge is encoded with a detectable code mark to identify the cartridge to the photo finisher as one that was exposed in the pseudo format camera. Preferably, the encoding means is a magnet for magnetizing a macroscopic region of the received cartridge to encode the cartridge with a macroscopic magnetic field having a predetermined orientation. The magnet moves with the back door towards the received cartridge at least until the cartridge is within the finite range of the magnet to encode the cartridge with the macroscopic magnetic field. The encoded magnetic field will provide an automatically determinable indication to the photo finisher that the cartridge was used in a pseudo format camera.
In pseudo format cameras of the type just described, it is necessary not only to indicate to the photo finisher that a cartridge contains images exposed in a pseudo format, but moreover to identify the format in which each individual image was exposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,353 describes apparatus in a simple low cost camera for encoding predetermined pseudo formats of exposed image frames on film of the type having a magnetic layer thereon in which there is a data track recorded on the film. A user operable selector on the camera is set to establish the format of an image frame to be exposed on the film. In response to the selector means, a magnetic erasure means is activated by an eraser encodement signal generating means to selectively erase predetermined portions of a segment of the data track associated with a corresponding pseudo format exposed image frame. Means are provided for inhibiting activation of the erasure means when the film is advanced in the camera in a direction opposite to the direction associated with frame by frame advance during picture taking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,198 describes apparatus in a simple low cost camera for encoding the existence of pseudo format image exposures on film having a magnetic layer thereon with prerecorded data and one or more parallel tracks on the film. User operable means on the camera establish the existence of a pseudo telephoto or pseudo panoramic image frame, and actuates one or more permanent magnets into contact with one or more prerecorded data tracks on the magnetic recording layer to cause selective erasure of track segments on the film associated with the pseudo format film image frame as the film is advanced to the next frame position. The absence of data in the track segments provides an indication on the film of a desired pseudo format which can be detected by the printer during the photofinishing process to produce the appropriate pseudo format print.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,715 discloses a method for use with a low cost camera for encoding magnetic data tracks to determine film utilization. This is accomplished by selective magnetic field erasure of a prerecorded data track each time the film is advanced after exposure of an image frame. A magnetic read head responds to the absence of any data in the segment of track when the film is advanced.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,490,844 and 4,975,372 each describe systems for using encoded film on photofinishing equipment for printing in a desired format.
While the foregoing patents provide a way to expose, identify and process various pseudo formats to provide photographers with the ability to take photographs having the formats they desire, they all increase the complexity of film processing and therefore increase the cost of making prints. Not only must the film cassettes having pseudo formats be identified on a cassette by cassette basis, but the individual frames must be examined to determine the format used to expose each frame. This greatly slows the processing of the film, because masks must be set during printing to select the portion of the exposed frame indicated by the pseudo format information, the degree of enlargement must be adjusted on a frame by frame basis to provide the necessary telephoto or pseudo panoramic formats. While it is possible that this may be done automatically with suitable processing equipment, even automatic sensing and adjustment of the printing equipment to produce the desired prints from pseudo format information encoded on the cassettes and individual film frames slows the printing process, and therefore makes it more expensive.
There is a need for a way in which photographers can expose film in a variety of formats with one format for each cassette and identify the format on the cassette to permit the film to be processed in batches, at high speeds, and therefore at low cost.